September 24, 2016

Remember him? He's a longtime Hillary Clinton confidante, most famous for coming up with the "reset" button that Hillary Clinton gave to the Russian Foreign Minister to symbolize our supposed new relationship with Russia in 2009. Reines is responsible for getting the word "reset" wrong and making it say (in Russian) "overcharged."

It's funny to think of that reset button now, with Clinton so critical of Trump for his interest in working with the Russians. According to Hillary's own memoir, the "bright red button on a yellow base... had been pulled off the whirlpool in the hotel" — the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva.

Hastings was asking questions like "Why didn’t the State Department search the [Benghazi] consulate...?" and "What other potential valuable intelligence [besides Ambassador Stevens's diary] was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds?" Reines became extremely defensive and abusive...

Here's a CNN video from 2014 about Reines's getting testy when Buzzfeed — having heard that Clinton hadn't driven a car since 1996 — wanted to know about whether Clinton had done various other things that ordinary people do (like using an ATM or eating at Chipotle):

It's interesting to hear those commentators talking about how presidential candidates have felt the need to show that they do what ordinary people do — e.g., candidate Obama went bowling (really badly... and made a terrible joke about it) — but we haven't seen much of that sort of thing from either Trump or Clinton. I guess those 2 protect each other from needing to seem like a commoner. But way back before Hillary had that immunity — back in April 2015 — she made a point of eating at Chipotle. And remember the "Scooby Van"? Those were simpler times.

Reines is a founder and managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, which appears to be international fixers: "Drawing on our decades of service in the international security arena, we develop strategies and provide services that enable companies to achieve their business objectives, both in the United States and around the world."

If Phillip Reines is doing his job, he will be doing his level best to cause Hillary to have a stroke. You can bet that is what Donald Trump is going to do. Win by knockout. Gennifer Flowers will be sitting right in the front row and Trump will be bringing it. If she falters, or better still, falls off her step stool, that is the end.

U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials — including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue.

Hillary's problem will be recovering from her Pneumonia induced brain damage, that shows in her eye motions and freezes, in time to fake normal strength. But she uses the base emotion of expressing her anger to tap that normal strength appearance.It will do her in, while Trump comes off as the kindly man he actually is at heart.

Trump doesn't need to fake doing what ordinary people do. He's running as a flamboyant character who *gets* the common man and says what they're saying when the elitists don't and won't. The constant drumbeat against him in the press is that he's crude, uncouth, and "not one of us". Which just helps him with that.

Hillary could benefit from more connection to the blue collar union wing of her party. But she lacks the energy to do something like bowling. Good thing the Presidency isn't a strenuous job. /sarc